DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story. Cassie, D.D, Shane, and Jack are all the property of someone else, who exactly that is I don't know, expect that somehow ABC is involved. So there's my crappy disclaimer.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If anyone saw the episode that details how the trio was formed from back in their prison days, then you'll know that there was no denying the sexual chemistry that permeated every scene Cassie and Shane (or Hot and Hotter, as I like to call them) were in. So, while I'd had inklings about how those two felt for each other, this episode cemented it and gave rise to this story.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

"Yeah, well the bigger they are the harder it is to make them fall although far more enjoyable, and effective in a calorie burning sense," Shane called over her shoulder at D.D. with a smile plastered across her face as the short haired blonde made her way to the front door of their loft.

"I'm sure you could think of a better way to burn calories. I mean it hasn't been that long has it Shane?" D.D asked checking her makeup in the mirror by the door before turning her head to look at the dark-skinned woman behind her.

"That was so funny I forgot to laugh or maybe I just didn't want to," Shane responded. "Go on, get out of here. And don't do anything Cassie wouldn't do," she continued before turning to face the long haired blonde seated on the couch, winking at her as Cassie's blue eyes moved to look at her.

"And life's options just got a lot spicier," D.D. growled playfully as Cassie turned to look at her and made a face, tilting her head from side to side mockingly at the other woman for emphasis. "See you two later. And girls, please try not to get into any life or death situations. I won't be here to save your collective asses."

"And she hasn't even started drinking yet," Cassie commented turning to look at Shane. "I hate to see what she's gonna be like after a half hour at the mini-bar."

"Scary very scary," Shane agreed nodding her head sadly.

"I won't miss you," D.D. called finally stepping out of the door, closing it behind her.

"But there is good news," Shane declared moving around the couch and plopping down beside Cassie. "She speaks," the brunette continued looking over at the woman beside her, her tone belaying the casualness of her words. "Usually not something to shout from the mountain tops, because you're too busy clasping your hands over your ears and asking the good lord why "

"You're getting to the comforting, sweet part of this diatribe any time now, right?" Cassie interjected sarcastically raising an eyebrow at Shane, though her lips curved up slightly showing that she was somewhat amused by the self-proclaimed Nubian princess' words.

"I was seconds away from declaring that this time, your voice is slightly less irritating than the sound of nails on a chalk board, though still highly, highly insufferable," Shane replied smiling over at the blonde, though her eyes carried with them a look of genuine concern and affection.

"See, who says regular, semi-educated, fashion impaired, egotistical, third wheels can't say it like Hallmark?" Cassie asked tossing her hands up into the air as if she couldn't believe such an unfair rumor was ever even created.

"Hallmark?" Shane guessed. "Wouldn't exactly be the best advertising campaign ever. Though, scarily enough, it wouldn't be the worse either," she continued looking amused, and then scared.

Cassie watched the play of expression coming over the other woman's face, before shaking her head and laughing softly, looking away as her body shook with laughter, her eyes coming to rest on her thighs. It wasn't that she was ashamed of letting Shane know that she found her amusing, it was just that the bout of laughter was accompanied by a swelling of emotion that she hadn't been anticipating and really wasn't sure how to deal with. Especially, since she seemed to have the emotional development of a rutabaga. Memories of the disaster that resulted the last time she found recognizable human emotions lurking inside of her were still fresh in her mind, and she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of more showing up. Even if it was only genuinely being amused by what an idiot Shane was.

Shane looked over at Cassie, watching as the blonde fought to return her face to its normal mask of amused indifference. She looked away briefly fighting her own internal battle, wondering if she could overcome her own emotional retardation and actually say what she was feeling to the other woman instead of veiling it with a comical insult or witty banter.

"I vote that we bring that back. A come back special for Cassie's laughter. We could kidnap Carol Burnett, tie Jack down to a chair and have D.D. hold up applause signs. It'd be a wacky good time," Shane stated fighting not to groan at herself as the words came out of her mouth. It wasn't quite the heartfelt confession she had wanted to make, but in her defense it wasn't an insult comical or otherwise, and could hardly be considered witty, so it had to be a step in the right direction.

"Could we drug them too?" Cassie asked turning towards Shane.

Shane smirked and raised her eyebrow questioningly.

"Oh come on, you know that's always fun," Cassie replied grinning widely, a dreamy sort of expression covering her features. "Ah," she sighed. "Good times," she finished meeting the sparkling brown orbs of Shane's eyes. She found herself charmed by them, and for once didn't immediately feel an up swelling of annoyance. The truth was she had always thought the other woman's eyes were beautiful. In fact they were the first thing she had noticed about her when they were forced to brush up against each other in a crowded prison hallway and had turned to glare menacingly at each other. She'd immediately wanted to like the owner of those beautiful, beautiful eyes, and that had bugged her to the point where she immediately decided that she didn't like, and in fact detested the other woman, and had gone on to create an adversarial relationship with her. One that went on even after they had both been drafted by Jack, and continued in a way to this day although it was now self-conscious and playful more than anything else.

Shane continued to look into Cassie's wistful blue eyes for a moment, before her eyes began to take up a study of the other woman's face, finally settling on Cassie's pouty, pink, mischievously delicious upturned lips. Lips that promised a thousand things, all of them debaucherus and utterly enticing.

She shifted on the couch slightly, her body inching closer to the smiling, relaxed woman beside her. Then her body tensed and she took a deep breath. 'Shane!' she yelled at herself inside of her mind, causing her body to actually flinch a bit. 'What the hell were you doing!?!' her mind continued to yell at her, her inner voice raising an octave or two so that shrill would've been inadequate to describe it. 'I wasn't doing anything,' she yelled back at herself highly offended. 'Oh realllllly," inner Shane returned in an irritatingly disbelieving and mocking tone. 'We've seen that one before," inner Shane continued. 'What you talkin' 'bout me?' Shane thought back to her subconscious. Inner Shane simply tapped her foot and looked at Shane expectantly. 'Oh god,' Shane groaned internally as she realized where she had been going with all of that.

"Hey," Cassie said placing her hand on Shane's shoulder drawing the other woman's eyes over to her. When she'd come out of her creative exercise on all the fun they could have with a drugged Jack, she'd realized that Shane had drifted off herself, but that unlike her the other woman looked troubled. "Welcome back," she said softly when Shane's eyes focused on her.

"Yeah," Shane said smiling. It was uncomfortable and her eyes moved away from Cassie's to skitter around the room. She shifted on the couch again, this time putting some distance between herself and the blonde causing Cassie's hand to fall from her body  much to her relief and disappointment.

"Alright, I grant you that it wasn't the most original comment ever, but hey you could still humor me with some excitement. You know, like a painfully obvious 'good one Cass', or the classic ploy of laughing hysterically and then stopping only to look at me stone-faced. You know, show a little pride in your work," Cassie responded as Shane stared at her somewhat blankly.

"Oh, I've got pride. I've got lots of pride. There should be a parade oh wait," Shane responded, though her words were mostly directed at herself. She forced her eyes away from Cassie's tender expression. She and Cassie had the same defense mechanism of using humor to cover for actual feeling, but like herself, a lot of what Cassie was actually feeling would show on her face even though her words would seem to imply the exact opposite, and she knew that Cassie was actually worried about her, which made things harder for her, because apparently she found 'genuinely sweet and vulnerable' Cassie to be sexier than 'smirky, bravado, snarky' Cassie, so that currently all she wanted to do was

"Shane?" Cassie said drawing the other woman out of her own musing once again. "Seriously, is everything alright. You look not alright," she continued softly.

"Yeah, sure I'm " Shane started before pausing to move her head to dodge Cassie's hand, which had moved to caress her cheek. "Right as rain," she continued noting that Cassie had noted her not so stealthy dodging. "Which is a strange expression, though that shouldn't take away from what I was trying to get across. I mean, rain? Of all things rain? What makes rain particularly right? When was the last time you heard someone go 'aiight! Rain!' It was never, cause people don't say that. Should be like right as sunshine, or right as chocolate, or "

"Right as sex," Cassie supplied a positively indecent smile spreading across her face. Shane looked at her horrified and shifted away from her on the couch a bit more at bit too far it seemed. "Jesus Shane," Cassie exclaimed a moment later hurriedly flinging her body across the couch, managing to wrap her arms around the other woman's back just in time to stop her from falling over the arm of the couch. "Seriously, how did you get through spy school?" she continued cradling the brunette in her arms as she considered how to get them both upright without either one of them toppling off of the couch ungracefully.

"The competition was easy," Shane managed to choke out, bringing Cassie's eyes down to her. The blonde was draped completely over her body, her head poised just over Shane's and it was all she could to remember to breath.

"The competition just saved your ass," Cassie responded smugly looking down at Shane. "And it's a nice ass, so if I were you I'd get with the thanking," she continued finding that she was actually kind of enjoying holding the other woman captive. It had been a long time since she'd felt another woman's body pressed against hers so intimately and that was not a line of thinking to be indulging in.

"As long as you're complementing it, why don't you just go ahead and kiss back there too," Shane replied, glad that she got the response out before Cassie shifted her body slightly and the ability to speak was momentarily taken away from her. She needed to get out of this position, maybe go out and buy herself some self-control when she was free.

"You know, that's the nicest offer I've had in a while. You should be careful what you ask for, you might just get it," Cassie replied carefully sliding one of her hands down to cup Shane's ass. Not that she was trying to cop a feel or was in anyway enjoying the contact. It was just that she was moving herself into a position that she could use to get them both upright again. There was absolutely nothing to read into the fact that she squeezed one of Shane's delightfully firm cheeks before hauling her up, or that when the woman in her arms gasped softly at the move her body suffused with warmth, or into the fact that the position she brought them up into left Shane sitting in her lap.

"Why do I suddenly want to call you Daddy," Shane asked looking down at Cassie from the slightly higher vantage point being in the blonde's lap provided.

Cassie stared up at her for a second after that, more warmth flooding through her body at Shane's words. She opened her mouth to respond but then closed it promptly, biting down on her bottom lip for good measure. She couldn't trust what would've come out of her mouth at that exact moment.

They had to separate, Cassie thought to herself. The joking had been well and good, but she didn't think she was joking anymore and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. She wasn't completely in denial. She'd never tried to convince herself that Shane wasn't gorgeous; that she wasn't about the sexiest thing she'd ever seen. From the first time they met she knew she was attracted to the other woman. But it had always been a minor attraction, and buried beneath their antagonism and then later their repartee. It wasn't anything she ever thought would come far enough forward in her consciousness that she would even consider acting on it. But there it was. And worse than ever, she realized with some horror. It wasn't like the time when she'd woken up in her cell, damp and sweaty from a dream that had featured Shane prominently. It wasn't simply a vaguely annoying lust anymore. There were now emotions. She and Shane had gotten to know each other, genuinely liked each other. They were friends. She cared about Shane, had and would without hesitation again put her life in danger to save the other woman, not for the mission but because she was Shane. Only now the lust had come back, and the combination of the two left her feeling rather discombobulated.

"Suddenly very glad I didn't go with the jockey comment," Shane muttered when Cassie failed to respond to her comment. She began to shift getting ready to move off of the blonde, flee the loft and very probably not speak to or look Cassie in the eye for a number of days following.

"Nothing," Shane said. "Nothing at all," she added her voice barely a whisper. She was thinking about doing something, very, very stupid.

"That's believable," Cassie responded sarcastically, her voice equally low as she stared up at Shane.

And then their lips were on each other, pressing against each other heatedly as Shane braced her hand on the back of the couch and pushed her body forward into Cassie's, rubbing their bodies together as the blonde's tongue slipped into her mouth deepening the kiss.

Cassie felt Shane's hand tangle in her hair, grasping it firmly and tugging slightly as she continued to attack the dark woman's lips, her own hands sliding down Shane's torso again to cup her ass, tugging her forward as she plastered their bodies together more tightly, her head swimming as the need for oxygen increased along with her need to taste Shane's lips creating a very vexing problem for her.

Shane drew in a deep breath when Cassie finally wrenched her lips away, her eyes focused on the blonde's puffy, pink lips, her ears filled with the sounds of Cassie's ragged breaths as her own tongue flickered out to lick her lips sensuously.

"Jesus, Shane," Cassie whispered her eyes locked on the other woman's mouth. And with that she surged forward again passionately re-attaching her lips to the brunette's. After a display like the one Shane just put on there was absolutely nothing else she could do.

"I wanna hear more of that," Shane whispered against Cassie's lips before sucking the blonde's bottom lips into her mouth, biting down on it gently before surrendering her mouth to be plundered by Cassie's expert tongue once more. Her hand sliding up the blonde's slender, well muscled side to cup her breast, running her thumb over top, feeling Cassie's nipple tighten and harden even through the material of her bra and shirt.

Cassie's lips parted and her head tipped back as her eyes fluttered closed and a strangled sound made its way out of her throat as Shane's hand continued to fondle her breast, and the woman's mouth moved down to her neck, where she began to attack the sensitive, soft skin she found, licking and nipping at Cassie as she thrust her hips against the blonde's thigh and manipulated her breast.

"Shane," Cassie said, capturing the woman's hand and placing one of her own on Shane's face forcing her head up so that she could see her.

"If you say this is a mistake and we have to stop, I will kill you. I'll blame it on robbers. I'm a highly trained government operative they could hardly blame me for " Shane started to say, trying her hardest not to just reattach her lips to Cassie's skin and drink in some more of heaven.

"Upstairs," Cassie said cutting off Shane's passion fueled diatribe. "Now. Upstairs now," she continued fulfilling Shane's desire and joining their lips once again as they struggled into a standing position while trying to maintain bodily contact at all times.

Shane felt her back connect with the wall near the stairs and then felt Cassie press up against the full length of her body, rubbing her body up and down against Shane's creating a delicious friction as her lips kissed behind the brunette's ear and down her neck, her teeth occasionally scraping against Shane's skin as she kissed every inch of skin available to her.

"This wall's actually looking pretty good," Shane commented as her hands slipped around behind Cassie's back and slid under her shirt. "As a final destination."

"Won't do," Cassie managed to get out as she grasped Shane's hand and tugged her towards the stairs. "When we're done, moving won't be an option. So unless you want D.D. to immediately know how well our date went "

"Shut up and climb," Shane replied wrapping her arms around Cassie's waist, urging her up the stairs.

"Stop it," Cassie groaned playfully, a huge smile covering her face as she wrapped her arms around Shane's body. "You're trying to kill me, and I didn't say stop not even when you wanted to "

"As I recall that soon got a rather enthusiastic response from you," Shane interjected, running her lips along Cassie collarbone tenderly, taking pity on the blonde and not trying to start up another session of love making.

Cassie smiled, remembering what exactly Shane had done to her to get that kind of response, and rolled them over so that she was leaning down over Shane. "Mmm," was all she said however, before lowering her head to kiss Shane softly, her lips brushing over Shane's tenderly and lovingly before she smiled again and dropped her head onto Shane's shoulder, snuggling into her embrace.

"I'd like to get used to this," Shane said softly a moment later, her thumb stroking Cassie's hip under the covers as her eyes searched the ceiling. She was getting better at the expressing herself thing.

Cassie lifted her head up at that drawing Shane's eyes over to her. "So would I," she said looking into the other woman's eyes, trying to convey with her expression what she wasn't yet able to put into words. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth biting down on it softly for a moment, looking the most vulnerable Shane had ever seen her, then releasing it breathing out "a lot" before leaning down and pushing her lips against Shane's once more.